Late Term Abortions

What does a late term abortion entail?

A variety of procedures are used to perform late term abortions; however, the most common abortion method performed in the second trimester is a “D&E” dismemberment abortion.

What is a D&E abortion?

The D&E method, used on unborn children 14 weeks or older, involves using a long steel tool to grasp and tear off, by brute force, the arms and legs of the developing human—after which the skull is crushed.

Dr. Anthony Levatino, an obstetrician-gynecologist who has performed many D&E abortions, describes the procedure: “Picture yourself reaching in with the Sopher clamp and grasping anything you can…Once you have grasped something inside, squeeze on the clamp to set the jaws and pull hard – really hard. You feel something let go and out pops a fully formed leg about six inches long. Reach in again and grasp whatever you can. Set the jaw and pull really hard once again and out pops an arm about the same length. Reach in again and again with that clamp and tear out the spine, intestines, heart and lungs.” Click here to hear Dr. Levatino speak.

What are the other methods

Does the baby feel pain during a late term abortion?

Babies feel excruciating pain during these brutal procedures. The presence of intense fetal pain is substantiated by scientific facts.

What does science tell us? What do the experts say?

Pain receptors are present throughout the unborn child’s entire body by no later than 16 weeks after fertilization, and nerves link these receptors to the brain’s thalamus and subcortical plate by no later than 20 weeks.

Surgeons entering the womb to perform corrective procedures on unborn children have seen those babies flinch, jerk and recoil from sharp objects and incisions.

The leading expert in the field of fetal pain, Dr. Kanwaljeet S. Anand at the University of Tennessee, stated in his report accepted as expert by a federal judge, “It is my opinion that the human fetus possesses the ability to experience pain from 20 weeks of gestation, if not earlier, and the pain perceived by a fetus is possibly more intense than that perceived by term newborns or older children.”

Dr. Colleen Malloy from Northwestern University said in her expert testimony before the House Judiciary Committee, “There is no reason to believe that a born infant would feel pain any differently than that same infant were he or she still in utero. Thus, the difference between fetal and neonatal pain is simply the locale in which the pain occurs. The receiver’s experience of the pain is the same. I could never imagine subjecting my tiny patients to horrific procedures such as those that involve limb detachment or cardiac injection.”

Kermit Gosnell is not alone. The horrors revealed during his case are endemic to the entire abortion industry. Evidence of multi-state abortion industry brutality is prompting a long overdue conversation in our country: Where do we step in to protect the rights of the most vulnerable?